None the Worse for Wear
by 26Pearls
Summary: The story of Paul from the first meeting of his imprint. It was widely known that Paul Lahote was not the type to fall in love, but, as it turns out, he and his imprint may make it through none the worse for wear.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is a sequel of sorts to Better to Have Loved. This involves Paul and an imprint of my own creation instead of Rachel. Read and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my own characters.

Chapter One

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please rise and put your right hand over your heart for the national anthem performed by Miss Kimberly Connweller." I put my hand over my heart and faced the American flag that was proudly displayed at the edge of the Forks football field. The familiar tune of the anthem filled the stadium, and the crowed clapped as the last flawless notes rang out. I watched shamelessly as two exotically beautiful women ran onto the field toward the trumpeter, closely followed by a herd of large, russet-skinned boys obviously from the reservation. Each one hugged, fist-bumped, high-fived, or ruffled her hair before one of the biggest boys slung an arm around her shoulders and walked her off of the field.

"I wish I had one of _them_ to keep me warm on a chilly autumn night like this," A familiar voice sighed. I sent a wicked grin in its direction.

"I'm telling Greg you said that, Hannah Banana." I watched as my best friend narrowed her mascara-ed eyes in my direction.

"You _wouldn't_." She stated dangerously, and we both turned toward the crowd on the heels of our pristine white cheer-shoes to face Hannah's long-time boyfriend Greg. When He noticed us he gave me a friendly wave and blew Hannah a kiss that she pretended to catch and store in the waistband of her cheerleading uniform. I rolled my eyes and turned my attention to the team of football players running onto the field. Punching Hannah in the arm to get her attention, I turned and gathered the squad into formation.

"Juliet Ellis, that was completely unnecessary," Hannah scolded, rubbing her arm gingerly and falling into her place beside mine. I smoothed down my sleek blonde ponytail, double knotted my shoelaces, and punched Hannah in the arm once more for good measure before turning my attention to the game.

"Go Spartans!" Forks High Spartans had run off the football field some time later, victorious and excited. I made my way to the concession stand, pulling the hood of my blue and gold regulation rain jacket over my carefully straightened hair.

"Great job tonight, Jules!" There were groans from behind us as Allyson Decker cut a long train of people to stand by me at the front of the line, a kind smile lighting up her face.

"You too, Ally," I told her, looping my arm through hers. It was only after I had stuffed my face with one of my three tinfoil-wrapped hotdogs and she had her bottle of water that we headed for the shelter of my car. That is, until I hit a solid wall and stumbled back until a big warm hand wrapped itself around my arm and steadied me on my feet. Only when I looked up did I realize that in my hotdog-induced haze of happiness I had rammed into a big, beautiful, wall of a man. It was the man from the field, I recognized, the one that had wrapped his arm around the trumpet girl. I flitted my blue eyes up to his brown ones, and when our gazes locked I was stuck there, entranced. A flood of emotions passed through his eyes and seemed to stop somewhere between shock and adoration. Which couldn't be possible because a.) I had never met this person, and b.) I was pretty sure he had a girlfriend.

"Paul!" Paul. I couldn't help but think that Paul was a nice name. He ripped his gaze away from my own at the sound of the girl's voice. I identified her as Kimberly Connweller, a.k.a Trumpet Girl. My eyes narrowed of their own accord when she tugged on the sleeve of his t-shirt and he bent so that she could whisper in his ear. His eyebrows rose and he nodded, confirming something, before whispering something in return. I watched as Kimberly's eyes widened and her brown eyes -a few shades lighter that Paul's- flitted to me and then back to Paul. Slowly, a bright smile spread across her face and she pulled Paul down and into a hug. I was strangely jealous at the familiarity of the exchange as he rolled his eyes and ruffled her long pretty hair before casting one more look at me and running off toward the woods. Weird.

I let out an 'oof' as an elbow collided with my ribs and I turned to find both Hannah and Allyson staring at me, confused, through eyes made up with matching blue and gold eye shadow. I just shrugged at them, perhaps the most perplexed of us all. Unwrapping a hotdog, I shoved half of it in my mouth, happy for the excuse not to talk.

"Excuse me?" A voice came from next to us, and the three of us looked up to see a wide, pretty face smiling in our direction, all long dark eyelashes, cheekbones and full lips. "I'm Kim Connweller." She held out her hand and I shook it curiously.

"We're having a bonfire over at First Beach, and you're welcome to come. All of you," she said with a smile. "And whomever else you'd like to bring."

"What's going on here?" A beautiful woman, high cheekbones and hair styled into an attractive bob wandered over, wrapping an arm around Kim and Kim smiled.

"Leah! I was just inviting…" Kim trailed off and looked toward us. "I'm sorry, what are your names?"

"Jules," I stated before Hannah and Allyson introduced themselves. Kim went on.

"I was just inviting Jules, Hannah and Allyson to our bonfire. The one we're having on First Beach tonight." She said something quietly to the woman -Leah- who glanced at the woods into which Paul had disappeared and sniggered. Kim swatted her goodheartedly on the shoulder and they both looked at us expectantly.

"So?" Kim pressed. "Will you come?"

"Um…okay." I agreed before I even registered what was coming out of my mouth. Hannah and Allyson looked at me with eyebrows raised as if to question my judgment. I knew they were right. Why had I accepted a stranger's invitation to party with more strangers? Like I knew. "See you later." I shoved the second half of the hotdog in my mouth before turning toward my car where, hopefully, I could figure out what the hell just happened.

A/N: I'm really sorry, but the first time I uploaded this, it only uploaded like half of the chapter, so hopefully with the rest of the chapter things don't seem quite so confusing!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I only claim my own characters.

A/N: I'm _so_ terribly sorry for the long wait, everybody! Chapters will be much more frequent from now until the end of the story. Read, enjoy, and tell me what you think!

Chapter 2

I imprinted. I had found my imprint. I now knew who I would spend the rest of my life with. But was it really my choice? It didn't feel forced. It felt natural, and running away from her into the woods with Sam felt, well, unnatural. I'd always thought of this as a sort of terminal disease. But I didn't feel sick. It felt… kind of like I was high. But not via the secret stash of weed I kept tucked away in my bedroom at Kim's house for rainy days. I was high on _her_. And I was fast becoming addicted. I could feel Sam's frustration at my being so distracted, but I knew he understood.

It was strange, I noticed fleetingly, without Jared's mind added to the mix. Jared, who texted me every two seconds to check on Kim from the hospital, where his sister just popped out a kid. My best friend Jared, who I had secretly resented for being so extremely whipped that we once walked in on the two of them stringing together neon colored beads and watching _Titanic_. Given, by the end of the night Kim had had the entire pack in her living room making bracelets that said things like 'LOL' and 'BFF' for Claire's fourth birthday party, and by the end of the night every single one of us had been humming that damned Celine Dion song. Is that what my life would be now? Bracelets and Celine Dion and being so completely whipped that I would enjoy it all?

_Stop_. The order came from Sam, and I put on the breaks, my paws sliding in the dirt, to face him. He shook his head, obviously unable to avoid my thoughts, and filled my head. It was the everyday, ordinary images thrown around by all of the wolves who've imprinted. It was Quil chasing Claire around the beach in slow motion just to hear her laugh, it was Jared and Kim making dinner together, dancing around the kitchen, laughing and singing together. It was Sam and Emily, together on the couch, smiling and enjoying the peace of an empty house. It was Emily's smile through Sam's eyes, her face radiating happiness. It was Claire the way Quil saw her as she fell asleep in his arms, her little hand wrapped his pinky, and then it was Kim, her cheeks flushed, looking at Jared like he was the inventor chocolate and music and the movie _Titanic_.

Then, as suddenly as Sam had put them in my head, he ripped them away and all that was left was _her_. It was just my imprint and an empty slate and all the possibilities in the world. And with that, I felt…calm. Which is weird, I thought in passing, because I only feel calm when I've had a few beers and maybe smoked a certain illicit substance. I closed my eyes to enjoy the sensation, and when I opened them I was laying on First Beach, stark naked, with Sam looking over my, shaking his head and tossing me a pair of pants.

Jules

"Holy shit," was the first thing Hannah said when she saw the abundance of hot, shirtless guys moseying around, looking even more delicious than the food stacked sky-high on their plates; and that was saying something.

"Aren't you glad you didn't bring Greg?" Allyson asked her with a conspiratorial wink, and we all laughed because we knew that the last thing she would ever do was cheat. The laughs dried up and Hannah sighed.

"Hey, Paul!" My head snapped up at the name, my eyes scanning the crowd for his beautiful face. "Your girl is here!" My heart sank as the woman called Leah walked forward, her arm wrapped around Kim Connweller. Why was I disappointed to find out that Kim was Paul's girl? Leah winked dramatically at Paul who, in turn, picked up a hotdog and threw it at Leah's face like a throwing star. She snatched it out of the air before it hit her face and shoved it in her mouth whole in a truly impressive fashion. Turning, Paul's gaze caught my own and a wolfish grin spread over his face as he made his way over to where we were standing. When he reached me, he held out his hand, his eyes never leaving my own.

"I'm Paul," he introduced himself, and when I put my hand in his, a warmth spread through me like sunlight spreading warm, fuzzy feelings throughout more and more of my body the longer our hands maintained contact.

"Jules," I said by way of introduction. It was then that I realized that maybe we had been shaking hands for just a little bit too long. I forced myself to remove my hand from his, and that wonderful warmth faded away. I tore my eyes from his to see my wing-women staring at me, their jaws slightly agape. I narrowed my eyes at them, and Hannah cleared her throat.

"Well," she said, glancing back and forth between me and Paul. "I just realized that I lost my phone." Paul, Allyson and I all stared at her.

"It's in your hand," Paul said slowly, as if he didn't think she was capable of comprehending words at a regular pace. She glanced accusingly down at the bedazzled cell phone in her hand and then back up at Paul. Suddenly, she tossed it over her shoulder without looking back and it landed in the sand with a soft thud some distance away.

"I lost my phone," she repeated and turned to Ally. "Come help me find it." Inside, I groaned and hit my head repeatedly with the heel of my hand until I was swallowed up by the earth at my friend's complete lack of subtlety. On the outside, I turned to Paul and smiled my most bedazzling smile. He blinked, then offered me his arm. "Want to take a walk?" and I wasn't sure why, but the thought made my stomach flutter with nervousness and excitement. And I was _not_ the kind of girl whose stomach fluttered around boys, gorgeous or not. I had taken lots of walks with lots of boys, and as we started down the beach I clung to my usual air of confidence with ferocity. And, as it turned out, Paul was the single most cocky, funny, disgusting person on the face of the earth, and it worried me how much I liked it.

And hour later, we made our way back to the party with smiles on our faces. That wonderful warmth seeped through my clothes from the hand he had placed on the small of my back as I met a group of boys, most as big as Paul, a few even bigger. I got winks, high-fives, handshakes, pats on the back, and had to thwart a few attempts at ruffling my hair. There was no way they were messing with my perfectly straightened hair. Not if they wanted to keep their hands.

"Paul!" Kim came running over and I instantly felt guilty. I wasn't the type to steal another girl's boyfriend. I moved slightly away, but Paul only pulled me closer. Kim looked surprisingly unconcerned at our close proximity. "Paul, I'm late to pick up Jared from the hospital and his truck won't start and Leah went to Port Angeles to visit Nick and Quil was going to take me, but then he had to take Claire home early." Okay. I officially had no idea what the hell this girl was talking about. Kim turned her frazzled gaze from Paul long enough to say a hello. Paul, for some reason, looked torn. He looked from me to Kim and back and somehow, for some unknown reason, I handed the keys to my precious car over to Hannah and ended up in Paul's pick-up truck, sandwiched between Paul and his girlfriend.

The ride to Forks Medical Center was surprisingly nice, with Paul grinning at me and Kim beside me tapping her fingers to the rhythm of the music softly crooning from the radio station she'd chosen. The car had barely pulled to a stop when hopped to the ground and wrapped herself in the arms of a guy that could have been Paul's brother. He stood just a few inches shorter than Paul, and had hair just a shade lighter. His muscles were defined but less bulky than Paul's. The guy flopped down in Kim's former seat and pulled her on his lap, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her cheek sweetly. I saw Paul roll his eyes but his smile said that he didn't really mind. What? He didn't mind that his girlfriend was wrapped up in some other dude? What was this?

"Who's this, Kimmy?" The guy asked, looking at me curiously.

"Oh, right!" Kim exclaimed with a blush. "Jare, this is Jules, Paul's…friend. Jules, this is my boyfriend, Paul."

"Boyfriend?" I asked stupidly. She looked confused at my doubt, but nodded her head. "Jared is your boyfriend? Not Paul?" With my questions I saw Paul's jaw clench just slightly before Jared and Kim looked at one another before bursting into laughter.

"No, not Paul," Kim said after her laughter died away, only a hint lingering in her eyes. I was so dumb with relief that I couldn't even bring myself to be embarrassed at their laughter, instead just scooting a little closer to Paul and smiling smugly when he wrapped a hot, heavy arm around my shoulders.


End file.
